SuAside - Locked in

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah is crouched behind the cart, the gun in her left hand held between her body and the cart itself so that nobody can see it, but the knife in her right hand clutched openly. "I know exactly what you mean, Nurse Hammond," she says softly. "There was a nurse on the ground floor who had a hammer and was building something just like Carson. She must have turned into one of those creatures too, but I'm hoping this is someone from the helicotper. Whoever it is is checking each floor from the top down. Stay hidden until we can be sure who it is." Sarah is reluctant to trust Hammond with a weapon, but there doesn't seem to be any way around it. I'm probably just being paranoid, she thinks, but she still doesn't reveal her gun. "I collected a bunch of small knives earlier and wrapped them up in a bundle with some medical supplies. It's inside the cart, near the top. Jill, Dahlia, you should hand them out, but be quick. That lift could arrive any second!"

[Hammond]

Hammond grabs a knife from the tray and takes her place back in front of the children's ward. " Thank you sweetie. I hope I don't have to use this thing." Hammond laughs to herself quietly."I'm sorry nothing is funny about this situation, but can you keep a secret. Now mind you I'm only telling you this because I've never known you to be cruel. I was hoping Tanar would show up to save us, but I saw inside the hood. You'll never guess who he really is."

[Mr. Handy]

"I hope you never have to use it either," says Sarah. "It...it's an awful feeling. Even when you're using it to fight off someone bad." She's probably heard about what happened with Lyle, she thinks, but there's no sense telling everyone about it. Sarah quickly changes the subject to get away from her unpleasant memories. "I can keep a secret. So who is Tanar really, under that hood?"

[Hammond]

Nurse Hammond silently repremends herself. I forgot what she's been through. I need to think before I speak."This will probably shock you as much as it did me. "Tanar is actually Louie the janitor. Poor boy. He's so shy. I wish he would take that darn robe off. It'll probably get him killed. He scared the bajeebers out of me, but it seems to give him confidence. I've said too much my husband always said I gossip too much. I guess he's right. I'm just so relieved to see you."

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you," says Sarah. "Louie has always struck me as kind of sweet, and now I know he's every bit the hero he longs to be. Yes, he is very shy. I'd say hello whenever I passed him, but he was always too nervous to speak to me." There are decent men out there, she thinks. I've got to stop being so distrustful, so fearful of being betrayed again.

[Hammond]

Nurse Hammond smiles at Sarah. " You're quite welcome darlin, but I'm not fully sure about his sanity. He's seen so much and I think it's starting to affect him. It seemed to me that he actually thought he was this Tanar character. He says he wants to help people, but I would still be carefull around him."

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah nods. "Thank you again," she says. "Yeah, everything that's going on is enough to unsettle anyone. I'll be careful. Oh, you should put on a surgical mask! If there aren't any left, you can have my second one. Two is better, but even one can save your life."

[Hammond]

Hammond looks at Sarah frowning slightly. "I guess since we're being honest with each other there is something I should tell you. Keep in mind the only reason I didn't tell you earlier is that I didn't know who I could trust. I lied earlier when you asked if I was armed." Nurse Hammond reaches under her skirt and removes a handgun. " I found this down stairs. I haven't even fired it. I'm sorry I didn't trust you at first. I knew I was being stupid." Hammond drops the knife and holds the gun with both hand. " Don't worry. If this is one of those zombie creatures I'll protect you. My husband belongs to a gun club and I've been with him a few times. So I actually know what I'm doing.....I hope."

[Laraqua]

The elevator descends with a ka-thunk, as though whatever controlled it had suffered some damage as well. It pauses on the Third Floor. The hospital is so cold now, it is difficult not to shiver.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah smiles too, though there's no way for the other woman to see it through the masks. "Thanks," she says. "I know what you mean, and it's all right. I wasn't sure if I could trust you either at first. I found one too." She reveals the pistol. "I've never even fired a gun before, but my reaction time's extremely good. I'm really good with a knife, though...you probably knew that. Well, most of the time.

Sarah takes a deep breath. "You see, the reason I mentioned the mask is that I saw your smile and realized you weren't wearing one. There's another kind of zombie I almost fell prey to. There are these small parasites outside that burrow under people's skin and turn them into these things. They've got these disgusting fleshy mushrooms in their mouths, and what they do is they grab you and...and clamp their mouths on yours, trying to push those shrooms down your throat. That was nearly the end of me, back in the ambulance. The driver was one of them, but I didn't know it at the time and was trying to help him when he..." She winces as she relives her harrowing ordeal, the anguish she felt resurfacing like an old wound opening up again. "I tried to fight him off, but I was panicking and couldn't hit him. When his mouth sealed over mine, I was paralysed. I was so helpless, I couldn't do anything while he...it felt like..." She lowers her voice to a whisper. "like I was being raped. If I hadn't had my mask on...even so, it was starting to rip. One of the paramedics stabbed it a couple of times, and once the thing was off me I could move again." Sarah tries to calm herself and control her breathing. "I don't know what those mushrooms were, but I knew I'd be toast if I swallowed one."

[Hammond]

Hammonds face drops at Sarah's storey. " Oh you poor dear. I can't imagine what you must have gone through. There's really not much to know about guns. Point one end where you want to shoot and hang onto the other end, and don't get them mixed up." Hammond allows herself a chuckle. "That's what my husband told me the first time he took me to the range. Seriously though the most important thing is confidance. Remember you are in control of the gun not the other way around. Don't be scared to hang on, and anticipate the kick. I always aim low that way I hit close to were I'm aiming. Oh yeah call me Dianne. We're not on duty right now and your the closest thing to a friend I've got in this god forsaken place." Dianne accepts the mask from Sarah and puts it on.

occ sorry too many names to remember. It's fixed

[Mr. Handy]

[OOC: You accidentally referred to Sarah as Jill.]



"Sure thing, Dianne," says Sarah. "You're so kind." She grips the pistol with renewed confidence, knowing she's just as able with her left hand as with her right, though she still carries it behind the cart and out of sight of anyone coming from the lift. If they are friendly, she doesn't want to frighten them.

[trixie]

Dahlia peeks out from the side of the doorway, down the hall again. She's still chicken to walk down there, especially when she sees the guns come out.

She hides, nervously awaiting whomever might come out the elevator.

"Jason? Did you hear what I said about going to the roof? Did you wanna go in the elevator to the helicopter? Cause I don't....." She stands there nervously. "I'll help Jill go to the roof, but I'm not gonna go in the helicopter. At least for the first ride. " She pauses. "I told Sarah that you and Jill should take the kids that are awake up there. But......um.......Jason?" She waits for him to say 'uh huh', "We have to make sure that someone we trust is with the kids. I don't want to see anyone get separated. Ok? No kid goes anywhere alone, with ANYONE."

[SuAside]

"I don't want to be on the chopper either." Jason says to Dahlia "And I think taking the elevator is hairbrained scheme... If the cable is anywhere near the same state as the rest of the hospital, it's just a matter of time before it snaps. I'll take the stairs if you don't mind..."

"As for trusting the adults with the kids? Well, it appears to me they are either Looney Tunes or near retarded... So I see your point." he goes on "But I ain't no babysit either... Kids gotta start to pull their weight."

"If you want the book, just take it out of my backpack. Use the first zipper."

[Hammond]

Nurse Hammond looks over at Jill and gives her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry darlin you got two bad ass nurses here to protect you." Hammond also keeps her gun out of sight of the elevator.

[trixie]

Dahlia moves behind Jason's back and unzips the backpack, to pull out the large scrapbook. "Ok, I got it!" She opens it again to the first two pages, to look at the large picture and read the writing. "D'you wanna see?" she asks Jason, and props it up on a table to look at it more closely. She's thankful that they are in a back room, away from the elevator and the madness going on down the hall.

The book is a scrap book with scrawled photographs and penned handwriting.

The first two pages show some kind of building with roughly hewn walls, made of brown stone near the bottom, then the brown bled into red, and the red into a white clay material. Judging by the queer shape, it may well be a huge cavern, with wooden rafters poles and posts holding up the very high ceiling. The floor is covered in raked sand. There are three circular sections carved from the floor with large steps, much as a person might sit on - which make it appear quite uncomfortable to walk down - the coffee mug provides scale. A photograph taken closer to the wall shows a number of vague carvings. Another photograph taken by someone leaning down a ladder shows a square room filled with supplies.

The writing:

"This place is huge, absolutely massive, the scale of this large cavern is at least two football fields. I think it may be some sort of meeting area. There are trapdoors here and there that lead to supply rooms. Mostly food but sometimes religious paraphernalia. The entrance to this place is from the store room in the Accident & Emergency recovery lounge's store room. The air is extremely cold. It makes me wish I had a jumper. There is only one tunnel leading off from this, the rest seem to have been sealed up. The carvings appear to be quite ancient, I've seen similar carvings in Indigenous Africa where they had once been quite noticeable but wind and rain erosion had reduced their visibility dramatically. Only, there couldn't be wind or rain in here - and the erosion I've seen hints of appear to be water erosion, as though this place was once a lake."

Dahlia looks over the picture and furrows her brow. "D'you think....that this might be where those people were trying to take the kids?" She points her finger to the picture, circling the enormity of the room. She continues in a whisper that could not possibly be overheard by anyone standing even a foot away. "Oliver said the adults couldn't be trusted. He said they'd try to make sacrifices of the kids. But he said it wouldn't help. That's why I said none of the kids should be left alone with any of the adults. 'Cause we don't really know who we can trust, y'know?"
She looks at Jason cautiously. "But can I trust you, Jason? You're not really an adult....."

[SuAside]

"Yeah, i've seen that part already." Jason says "I wonder if there is any truth in it."

"As for sacrificing kids? What are you going on about? Who is trying to take children?"

[trixie]

Dahlia sighs impatiently and continues in a whisper, only audible to Jason. "The kids are important, and they all belong together. We have to keep them together, to protect them. The adults are trying to get a kid to come with them, probably would force them at some point, so that they can sacrifice them. They think that would make a difference, you know. That it would stop all this craziness. Oliver told me about it when he first came out of the ward. I don't think all the adults are on one side though. Just that some of them have bad ideas for us and we should be really careful."

Dahlia pauses to take a breath and points to the room in the picture. "I think that this is probably where they'd try to take them. Oliver told me that one of the doctors was telling him about it before they gave the kids needles to put them to sleep. Oliver said that trying to sacrifice one of the kids just wouldn't help though. Maybe the book will tell us more about what's really going on in here. Like why there's ash all over everything and stuff."

Dahlia feels like she's been transported into a mystery book like the ones on her shelf at home. The ones she'd read cover to cover when she was sick with the flu. The fact that some of this was unfolding in real life was too spooky for words, but in a terribly exciting, and intriguing way for her. Dahlia had always wished she could be a spy, finding out important information, and being the first to figure out the mystery. If only I had a sleuth coat and pipe....she dreams.

[SuAside]

"Sjeezes... Where did all that nonsense come from?" Jason says "The only sacrifice I've seen was an adult cut to bits..."

"As for keeping them all together, it didn't do much good for them in the children's ward, now did it?"

"Besides, where is that Brianna kid? She went downstairs. Some writings said crap about being a princess or whatever. Maybe she's important somehow?"

[trixie]

Dahlia furrows her brow at Jason.

"Maybe you should consider it before you just dismiss the possibilities of it!" she says crossly. "I thought Joel was the only one in denial. You think I'm making this up?" she asks, incredulously. "Oliver told me all of this when you were busy with the kids and the announcement was on. That's why you didn't hear any of it til now. But fine, don't believe me."

She slaps the book closed, and holds it tight to her chest. "If we keep them together it's impossible for one of the adults to kidnap a kid without us knowing and doing something about it. Unless you really don't care if they string you up and decide to make you a sacrifice that is". She laughs nervously. "I'd rather it not be me, after all. But maybe you don't care considering you're.....welll...." She looks him up and down, and flicks her hair over her shoulder.

"Never mind. I'll just figure this out on my own."